Two Premium Vodka Bottles by Flowdesign

Flowdesign has taken stock bottles to a premium level with two new premium vodka brands—DiVine Vodka and Ocean Vodka. DiVine Vodka is the Midwest's first ultra-premium estate vodka, produced with grapes from the Round Barn estate and selected vineyards.

The DiVine Vodka brand developed methodically after intense market research, numerous recipe adjustments, and endless hours of package and logo design. Flowdesign of Detroit crafted the entire image of this new vodka along with consulting on the stock bottle choice.

Dan Matauch, principal of Flowdesign, explains that they consciously avoided the common "window" design and instead went with a clean white organic spray coating that fades to clear at the bottom of the bottle. This helped the grey vineyard illustration, gold DiVine logo, and purple dot design pop off the bottle.

A Maui-based startup company has introduced Ocean Vodka, which uses water drawn from a half-mile below the Kona waves and alcohol distilled in Idaho from organic corn and rye. With help from Flowdesign, Hawaii Sea Spirits LLC is positioning its new Ocean brand vodka alongside established premium brands and is also touting Ocean as the vodka for the ecologically conscious.

Flowdesign created the flowing palm tree, the energetic Ocean logo, and the red Maui "stamp." A stock bottle with multiple layers of applied ceramic label provide a very watery, oceanic impression. Hawaii Sea Spirits believes the hint of blue tint to the glass gives it a carefree Hawaiian feel.

Two Premium Tequila Bottles by Pearlfisher

Pearlfisher has recently created a complete brand identity for the new Pernod Ricard super-premium tequila brand Tezón and also redesigned the established Milagro tequila brand. For Tezón, lead designer Lisa Simpson explains that Pearlfisher based the design around the process of making Tezón, which includes a black, volcanic stone wheel—called a Tahona—to crush the plants and extract the juice. Pearlfisher found a synthetic material that resembles the Tahona stone and formed it into a Tahona shape for the cap.

The very heavy bottle also has two metal strips on either side of the bottle detailing four symbols representing the specific steps needed to create Tezón tequila: 1) agave; 2) fire; 3) Tahona; and 4) water. A leather booklet around the neck of the bottle details the tequila making process and the hand-blown feel of the glass further reinforces its premium positioning. There are tiny bubbles in the glass and the thick base is intentionally thick and uneven, adding even more weight and conveying authenticity, hand-crafted, and heritage.

Pearlfisher rebranded Milagro to create more visual impact on shelf and to give the brand a more cohesive look as a family. The overall look and feel for the Milagro line is lively, youthful, fun, modern, and individually Mexican. Copy on the bottle has been given greater definition and space to give a more sophisticated and branded feel. The agave plant icon has been made more contemporary and forms a unit with the "100% agave" strapline and variant name.

White Rock Distilleries Moves Into PET for Pinnacle Vodka

Pinnacle Vodka was an established brand with a translucent blue glass bottle sourced from Italy, powder-coated in Montreal, and filled in the U.S. With a new 1.75L PET bottle in translucent blue from Amcor PET Packaging, White Rock Distilleries hopes to preserve the Pinnacle Vodka brand while greatly reducing costs.

"The length of the supply chain was mandating the amount of inventory we had to hold," explains Joe Werda, director of operations at White Rock Distilleries. "We felt that we could get a high quality PET container to effectively represent the brand and give us significant cost savings."

In considering PET alternatives, White Rock wanted to make sure that the brand imaging would not be compromised in any way. "We chose Amcor because of their ability to work with unique bottle designs," Werda says. "We gave them a design that we knew was difficult to replicate in plastic."

The goal was to replicate the glass bottle as closely as possible. The bottle had several unique design elements—it tapers in from the shoulder to the base, the base is footed, and it has a taller profile than other commercial 1.75L PET bottles. Design and engineering parameters were pushed to achieve the desired geometry.

The company was also very specific in its color requirements. The end result was a slightly different shade of blue than the glass version. "Getting the right color was another challenge," says Werda. "After several attempts, Amcor was able to manufacture a bottle with a blue color that was so pleasing that we converted our glass 750-ml and liter sizes to match the PET."

The conversion has also enabled the company to offer a more competitive retail pricing structure. "We are very pleased with the look and feel of the bottles—they are very high quality looking," notes Bill Dabbelt, vice president, sales, White Rock Distilleries. "Many consumers don't actually know that it is PET until they touch it."

Coca-Cola Creates Soccer Bottles for the World Cup

Coca-Cola has a long history of celebrating the World Cup with special edition bottles, usually featuring special decoration, labels, caps, etc., which are avidly collected all around the world. To celebrate the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, the Coca-Cola Europe division in the U.K. produced a truly unique PET Coke bottle in the shape of a football (known as a soccer ball in the U.S.).

This 250-ml bottle was available in both Regular and Diet Coke. Graphic Packaging International took on the challenge of automatically packing a two-by-two multipack wrap of these unique primary containers at line speed. A Marksman1400 wrap machine at CCE's Sidcup plant was up to the task, as it can run a wide range of different and unusually shaped primary containers and uniquely shaped wraps.

IPIFINI Could Make Beverages With Dozens of Possible Flavors

IPIFINI is a new company that has refined a concept that could change the way consumers choose their beverage flavors. With Choice Packs™, the consumer could decide what flavors to add to a base beverage by releasing flavors into the package after purchase.

Small capsules built into the package give consumers the freedom to choose their flavor or create their own custom flavor by combining two or more flavors. If there are six flavors, for instance, that's 64 possible combinations.

On the manufacturing side, the beverage company would only have to produce one SKU instead of a variety of flavors. Other possible benefits include freshly mixing unstable ingredients, such as vitamins. IPIFINI has patents pending for a number of substrates, and is open to applications in cosmetics, cleaners, and pharmaceuticals, among others. Visit www.ipifini.com.